Month: March 2012 (page 1 of 2)

In at number 40 on the Hot 100 list:yes, it's my top-of-the-pops moment

Well, well, well. I appear to be operating at a sizzle these days, at least if this year’s Food and Wine Magazine Hot 100 list is anything to go by. Amongst mentions in the list for fellow bloggers Niamh Shields from Eat Like A Girl, Aoife Carrigy from Holy Mackerel and Joanna Schaffalitzky from Smorgasblog – lovely ladies all – I was very flattered to see this here blog listed for the second year.

And if, as the Food and Wine citation says, this is the place to come for potato recipes, then I’d better get some spuds on now, hadn’t I?

Now here’s something that I couldn’t be more pleased about – the opening of WJ Kavanagh’s on Dorset St., by the people who brought you L. Mulligan Grocer. The Mulligan’s crew have done nothing short of redefine what it means to be an Irish pub with Irish grub and Dublin is a better place because of their endeavours. The new premises is bigger and brighter than L. Mulligan’s and (as co-owner Seáneen describes it) the menu will be lighter to match. There will be lunches, there will be coffee (with the assistance of coffee meisters from 3FE), and jam jar cocktails will join craft beer, whiskeys and whiskies on the drinks list. There will also be afternoons – many I hope – spent in the nook by the fireplace. I’m happy because it’s here and even happier because it’s near.

What’s that you say? Spuds in the news again? Yes indeed, the fact that we Irish are eating less of them seems to be a topic that we simply – and somewhat ironically – cannot get enough of.

This time, it was the turn of the Irish Times magazine, with potatoes front and centre in yesterday’s Paddy’s Day edition. In the magazine, Róisín Ingle got to grips with the realities of potato consumption in modern Ireland, mainly by way of an interview with Tom Keogh of Keogh’s Potatoes but, wise lady that she clearly is, she solicited my opinion too (you can read the full article at your leisure over here). The magazine also included the word on chips from Kevin Thornton and a slew of fine looking potato recipes from Domini Kemp, Kevin Dundon and Sunil Ghai, among others. Plenty to keep a spud lover engaged and happy over the national holiday, then.